Subject: Re: Comments on 12/15 -SPOILERS (of course)
From: dupree@hpclpa.HP.COM (Chuck Dupree)
Date: 1990-12-19, 12:48
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

/ csu@alembic.acs.com (Dave Mack) /  7:00 pm  Dec 18, 1990 /
writes:

>> >>Here's the transcript of the tape from Wyndham Earle:
>> >>.
>> >>.
>> >>.
>> >>It's quite obvious that WE isn't talking about a chess game here.
>> >>I assume that his "emphatically traditional opening" refers to
>> >>the attempt to assassinate Cooper. 

I agree that WE is referring to his stalking of Cooper.
But, as a chessplayer myself, I'm following the game between
them as well.  WE's taped speech seems to me to have two
meanings, one chessic and one not.  All the adjectives in
WE's speech can be taken as referring to a chess game.  For
instance, his statement:

  Of course, you couldn't help but take note of my
  emphatically traditional opening. I must say, your
  responding move was nothing if not reflective of your
  predilection for the tidy and fastidious.  See how my
  response to you begins to lead us towards a classical
  confrontation?

describes schools of play among chessplayers ("traditional",
"classical", "tidy").  We know that WE's first move was P-K4
(or e4, for users of algebraic notation) and his second move
was P-Q4 (or d4).  If Cooper chose the French Defense (1. ..
P-K3 or .. e6), a "classical confrontation" would be
developing, in the sense that two classical methods of play
would confront each other.  If Cooper chose, say, 1. ..
P-KN3 (or .. g6), a confrontation would develop between the
classical approach and the so-called "hypermodern" approach.
This confrontation was at the heart of chess during the first
few decades of the twentieth century.

Just another example of things having (at least) two meanings
in this show.

- ced